Love Is A Verb! with Michael Schroeder —
Love,........have you ever stopped to consider where it comes from?
Take a look at the subject of Love, not from man’s definition, but from the source of love itself.
For it says in 1 John 4:8 and 1 John4:16b that God more than loves - but that God “is” love.
If you take a look at how God defines Love, you find Love isn’t
proclaiming the words “I love you” from the mountaintop to the world.
For words alone are empty and meaningless without substance behind them.
As you carefully read how God defines love in 1 Corinthians 13, you find
that He doesn’t say anything about love being what we say, but what we do!
You see by its very definition “Love Is A Verb”.
Read God’s definition of love carefully in 1 Corinthians 13 to see what I mean;
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (NIV)
4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud
5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it
keeps no record of being wronged. 6 It does not rejoice about
injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. 7 Love never gives
up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every
circumstance.
Notice that in every definition of love here in God’s Word, that love is a verb, love is action!
Love isn’t words or what we say, but what we do.
And as you read this and more of God’s definition of love in His Word, you come
to understand that love isn’t what you get, but what you give. Think about that for a minute!
Love isn’t what you get, but what you give!
When Jesus was asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment,” His reply was to love – to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and He answered further by
saying, “This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it:
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matt 22:36-39)
When it comes to sharing the good news (John 3:16) – that God loved us so much that He sent his Son to the world as a sacrifice to pay for our sins, so that by grace through faith we could have eternal life through him - God in His Word clearly wants us to more than tell the world about Him, but show the world who He really is by showing them love.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another,
even as I have loved you” (John 13:34)
“By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love
for one another" (John 13:35)
In the Bible, there are several different words used to indicate different kinds of love and relationships. But the word used here in John and elsewhere in God’s Word for this type of “love” is agape,
the Greek term used in the New Testament to indicate selfless, sacrificial love. The word agape in the Bible is never used to refer to family, brotherly, or romantic love. Agape love is of God.
And only through His power and Spirit can we love each other this way.
Jesus’ instruction to love others as ourselves means following
the example He set for us, of putting the needs of others before our own.
But in the English language, there is only one word “love” to cover all different kinds of meanings and relationships, including even what we like. For example, I love my car, I love ice cream. But
empty words or an expression that describes what’s in it for us isn’t what love is at all according to God’s definition of love. Remember again how God defines love, that it isn’t what you say, but what you do, and that love isn’t what you get, but what you give.
It makes perfect sense that the Bible says that love is the greatest gift, knowing that God, who “is” love, made the greatest sacrifice in His gift of love to us: a Savior. (John 3:16)
1 John 4:19 Says "We love because he first loved us."
Make it a goal each day to show the world God’s Spirit in you by showing all the real meaning of love – not in what you say, but what you do. Not in what you get, but what you give.
“Love is a verb”……….pass it on!
Download "Love Changes Everything " at
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Loving One Another 1 John 4:7-21(NLT)
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes
from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.
8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is
love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only
Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.
10 This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and
sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to
love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each
other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in
us.
13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and
he in us. 14 Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now
testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in
them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us,
and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in
them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we
will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with
confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we
are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have
not fully experienced his perfect love. 19 We love each other[a]
because he loved us first.
20 If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer,[b] that
person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we
love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this
command: Those who love God must also love their fellow
believers.
1 Corinthians 13:13
13 Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the
greatest of these is love.
